Learning the Hard Way
by stevie4eva
Summary: Artemis runs away from home. Wally finds her passed out under a tree. Both of there lives change forever. Optomist, meets pessimist, and ove meets hate. Neither will ever be the same. Follow Artemis's stay at the West residence. Corse language, rape. Based of the book Cold waters. please read better than the summery. I dont own young justice.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! If you follow my other stories, I am so sorry for the wait. I have a lot on my mind, and school and dance has started for me, and I rarely have time. Besides I have had serious writers block, so they wouldn't have been that good anyway. ATTENTION: I got this idea from a book I read years ago. The book is amazing I totally recommend it, it's called Cold Waters. If you want to know the author just message me. I did change it up a little though.**

**I do not own Young Justice, or (sadly) the plot of this story **

I'm sitting in a tree, thinking about my life. I never thought I'd have the guts to think about it, my life that is. I mean people say they have a tuff life, but to sit down and think about all of your problems is one of the scariest things you can do, because once you get into that state of mind, you might never get back out. My problems are small, complicated, but small. But when you think about the big picture, isn't everything small? Every problem seems to disappear when presented with the hugeness of reality. Though, they don't seem that way…small. They seem to be important enough to stress over, so we do. And every problem leaves you with a print. My theory is that when you die, you die still marked with all your issues and scars and as for the happy memories…there small too. I remember when my biggest question was to color Santa's hat red and white, or white and red, and all I needed to worry about, was the monster under my bed. It could still be that way, I think. If we stopped looking at the big picture, and worrying about the little one; if we just played life like a child plays a game of chess, making the moves and not worrying about the consequences, maybe we'd be happier. But like the end of every game of chess, that child realizes that if they had played a little more attention, and thought about the moves a little harder, they wouldn't have lost. But then again…does anybody ever win? In a way, life is like the tree I'm sitting in, when you least expect it the roots seem to pop up, and knock you flat on your face. That is how my story starts…flat on my face.

When I woke up for the first time, I thought I was dead. I stared into blackness and watched as the visions swirled around me. Two faces, no eyes, just standing watching me, they didn't come any closer. At first I tried to stay awake, tried to fight the weight on my eyelids. But eventually, I did what we all do, I gave up.

When I woke up for the second time, I knew I was still alive, because when you're dead, you can't feel this much pain. Every part of me hurt with a pain that can only come with a thousand broken hearts. So I pried my eyes closed to distract myself from the hurting.

When I woke up for the third time, I came face to face with a stunning pair of green eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sigh, look…I am super sorry for the wait. The truth is if you read any of my story's you probably haven't seen anything knew for quite a while. I just don't know anymore. I have had such a lack of inspiration lately. I just miss the spitfire from season 1 young justice. I will get back on my stories right away but please don't hold your breath I don't know when my inspiration will return.**

When I woke up for the third time I saw a stunning pair of green eyes.

I jumped back surprised at the second presence in the room. Witch now that I think about isn't mine… He cleared his throat. "Oh…Uh…Sorry 'bout that. I probably shouldn't have been so close to ya. Is just that you were waking up and I wanted to see what color your eyes are…" He trailed off sheepishly. He was relatively tall and muscular with red hair and freckles. His eyes were so green it was unnatural.

"Who-who are you?" I asked trying to force the words out of my throat but it felt so dry and scratchy.

"Oh sorry how rude of me here you go," He handed me a glass of water, "my name is Wally."

I eyed him for a few seconds before concluding that releasing my name would be harmless enough, "Artemis,"

"That's a weird name," he said matter o' factly.

"You're the one named Wally," I snapped back. He narrowed his eyes but laughed anyway as if to say _touché. _

"Well…Artemis… You should get your rest," He turned to leave.

"Wait," I hurried, "How did I get here? Where is here?" asked realizing I still had no clue where I was.

"You're at my place, found you passed out under a tree, and as for were…you are in Central City." He said before flashing me a toothy grin that didn't reach his eyes. Suddenly I remember screaming at my sister. I remember my dad hitting me. I remember running away. I had fallen out of a tree when I was planning where to go next, I was cold and lost, and somebody saved me. But I still have no idea how I possibly got to Central City, I live-I mean lived in Gotham. I opened my mouth to ask but the boy, Wally, was gone.

I must've drifted off to sleep because when I woke up again it was dark outside. I feel pathetic. I had to be rescued and here I am unable to even stay awake. Dammit. I always promised myself I wouldn't need saving. That I didn't need a hero…and I don't. I would've been fine if that Baywatch never found me. He set all my plans back. Why couldn't he just have stayed out of it!? He ruined everything! "_No he didn't_," a little voice in the back of my mind told me, _"you ruined everything long before you ran away Artemis." _I banged my head on the dresser just to get myself to shut up. Wincing at the pain in my head now fully forming I decided I should get up and get it over with.

I lazily threw my legs over the side of the bed and used all my effort to stand upright. Using the wall as a rail I made my way out the door into the rest of the house. The house was decent sized and the decor wasn't too tacky, there were lots of pictures. Most of them were of Wally and who I guess to be his mother smiling and having fun. There were no pictures like that in my house. Sigh.

I made my way down the stairs and walked into the kitchen were the woman in the pictures was. She was sitting at the table with a mug in one hand and the paper in the other. Her eyes widened when she saw me. "Deer you should sit down," She said obviously concerned that I was out of bed. I sat down at a table and she introduced herself, "I'm Mrs. West, but you may call me Iris."

"Thank you…Iris…for lending me your lovely home," I tried to be polite.

She chuckled, "It is quite alright sweetheart, stay as long as you like," She smiled warmly.

"Oh, uh…thanks but I wouldn't want to overstay my welcome, I will just call my dad to come get me," I lied through my teeth.

"Nonsense, it is no bother, besides you obviously don't want to go home or you wouldn't have run away, and I am guessing you have no place to go or my son wouldn't have found you underneath a tree in the rain." She gave me a knowing look, "why don't you sit down and I'll make you some hot cocoa."

**I know it's a short chapter but like I said, my muse is dead. Review. Tell me what you think. Opinions, questions, ideas, requests?**


	3. Chapter 3

I was currently sitting in the kitchen with Wally and Iris, thankfully she hadn't asked me any questions about my home or why I ran away. I just have to get out of here as soon as possible. "So Artemis, how are you feeling," Iris asked me pouring herself some more hot cocoa.

"Fine," I replied. I wasn't exactly in the mood for conversation.

"Are you sure," she asked not buying it, "you had a fever last night, and if you have a headache you should've stayed in bead, and-"

"She said she's fine," Wally cut her off effectively saving me. Damn he has to stop saving me.

"Thank you for your concern," I muttered quietly, "…and for letting me stay here," Wally snickered so I elbowed him in the side.

"Oww, what was that for!?" He asked

"You were laughing at me,"

"Well you didn't have to be so polite," He explained himself, Iris just rolled her eyes. We sat in awkward silence for a while. It was probably only a few minutes but it felt like an eternity. I didn't belong here. This was a family. I was from…well I don't know what to call it. It wasn't a family that's for sure. It used to be one, but that was a long time ago. It was before the incident.

As if reading my mind Iris asked, "Do you have anywhere to go?" My eyes widened and I tried to come up with a lie. "I will take that as a no," she said.

I hung my head down ashamed that I hadn't thought this through at all, "I can find somewhere to go, I'll stay in a motel tonight and find a better situation tomorrow," I came up with. Wally scoffed a looked at him, "what?" I asked annoyed.

"Well, that's a terrible plan," he said as if it was the simplest thing in the world, "you can stay here." He beamed at himself like he was a genius for thinking of it. I rolled my eyes.

"Wally's right," Iris said, "you will stay here until you can go home…as long as need be."

"That might be a while," I said stubbornly.

"Then we will get you a dresser," she shot back. For a few minutes all was quiet, "Why did you run away?" she asked gently.

"We had an argument, that's all," I muttered, looking anywhere besides her face. "I was stupid and overreacted. I shouldn't have runoff like that."

She seemed to consider my words, "You should go get some rest."

I lied there on the bed for a long time unsure of what to do. It annoys me how weak my body is and I try desperately to stay awake. I guess it's stupid but I've already listed my flaws. I'm ridiculously stubborn. I don't like to lose, especially to something as silly as sleep. I think about everything that's happened recently. I decide to call my dad in a week or two. He will come and collect me and we can go back to normal. My sister will taunt me and my dad will tell me how useless I was and probably smack me up some. He would pit me against the world and I would lose. I still have a bunch of undone homework. I'm going to have to do something about that.

About an hour later a voice startled me, "Are you okay?" I bolt upright witch causes my headache to viciously return. Finally I see him – Wally, I need to remember his name.

"Fine," I mutter.

"You've been staring at the ceiling for the past five minutes," he said, "I just walked past and noticed I wasn't spying on you or anything," he quickly added. "If you want privacy you should close the door,"

I stuck my Tung out at him. "I don't want to go to sleep," I said returning my gaze to the ceiling.

"Why?" he asked confused.

"It's a waste of time, and I've already slept too much," He nodded his head in understanding.

"Why did you run away?" He springs the question on me. What an ass, just throwing that question on a girl. He was there when I told Iris. He should pay more attention. There's probably not anything in his head besides donut holes.

"I prefer not to say," God why is he so nosey?

"Okay…you'll tell me one day,"

"What makes you so sure?" I asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Intuition….no that isn't the right word, only girls have that,"

"That's sexist," I scoffed.

"You're strange," he said

"And you're stupid," I shot back. He looked at me and burst out laughing. I couldn't help but chuckle. Being in this house is making me soft.

**So I don't really want to go further than this today maybe later. There really wasn't a good place to stop so I just stopped here. Review! Need 7 reviews before I post the next chapter.**


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